


skateboards and vanilla lattes ☕

by cosmicstay



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Coffee, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Getting to Know Each Other, Hwang Hyunjin is Whipped, Hyunho - Freeform, Lee Minho | Lee Know-centric, M/M, Mentioned Kim Seungmin, Mentioned Lee Felix (Stray Kids), Minho is a little dense, Slice of Life, barista hyunjin, bookseller minho, skaterboy hyunjin, they're just having a good time tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:21:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28160847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicstay/pseuds/cosmicstay
Summary: Things Minho likes:1. Old books.2. Chans vanilla lattes.3. Living his simple and quiet life* as a bookseller.* What he didn't knew:That this simple and quiet life will be soonish upgraded thanks to Chan, to a more lively shop, the combined smell of old books and coffee, new co-workers, and a person which smells like home. ☕
Relationships: Hwang Hyunjin/Lee Minho | Lee Know
Comments: 10
Kudos: 80
Collections: A thousand memories and a million more to come





	skateboards and vanilla lattes ☕

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [SKZMemories](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/SKZMemories) collection. 



> Hello ♥  
> I hope you'll enjoy this little slice of life-ish work about Hyunjin and Minho.
> 
> It's my first time joining in a writing event like this, I hope everything goes fine hahah :)
> 
> Happy 1000 days with SKZ ♥

“Minho, you know that this is a wonderful idea, which will benefit both of our businesses!”

Minho knew that Chan was right, ever since they got teamed up for the first time in one of their lectures for the master’s degree in business and economy. Chan just had a thing for successful business concepts. They pretty much got along with each other as if they were one person, as scary as it was for their classmates. Soon they became friends and would even become business partners, as it seemed.

“It’s not like your customers come over to my cafe after they got their literature from you and vice versa - just imagine the boost in sales we would get!” 

“I know that you’re right, but how do we get the grandpa to agree?”

The “grandpa” was their landlord. Chan and Minho basically rented out the same property, which was divided into two separate shops diagonally, with a foldable screen in between them. The building they’re in is on a corner of a street in Hongdae and whilst Chan’s coffee shop opens toward the main road, Minho’s little antique bookstore faces a calmer side road. The triangular shop layout made it difficult to properly design the interior at first, but eventually, they came around to work with the layout, and soon both their businesses started to flourish. Minho felt truly happy to have his little shop right next to Chan’s, even tho he despised the landlord’s way of milking the property dry by dividing it and getting double the rent.

“It would be nice to get rid of some of the dead corners within the shop tho.” Minho let his head roll before taking his vanilla latte again, “I mean, I have some books and stuff stacked there, but they tend to get overlooked.”

They were sitting in the little coffee shop, surrounded by plants and feeling the first warm sunshine of the day on them, drinking their morning coffee together before they would open their shops at 10 am.

  
“Please Min, I just need you to agree on the idea and be my mental support, I’m gonna deal with the landlord. It’ll be amazing!”

*****

Whilst it wasn’t exactly a breeze to get their landlord to agree on their idea, Chan and Minho only needed to close their shops for two days to reorganize everything. With the wall all folded up into the back corner of the coffee shop you really could sense how much room and open space the property regained.

Those two days were stressful, especially because they were close to pulling an all-nighter whilst moving furniture, cleaning, and decorating their space to make it cozy and homey for all the customers which would visit them. Minho thought, that it was worth every minute of work they put in.

Minho thought it was pretty, and wondered how he could’ve ever been slightly opposed to this idea. Now he could smell the freshly brewed coffee every day. The smell of coffee would mix up with the one of the old, antique books he had for sale. If there was an option to somehow capture this smell, he would do it in an instant. It was a cozy smell. It made him feel at ease.

On the day of their reopening, they sat at their usual corner in the morning sun, drinking their coffees, being tired, but happy. Minho even dozed off and would’ve fallen asleep, if it wasn’t for that freckled boy from the flower shop on the opposite of the road, which brought this week’s fresh flowers for Chan’s cafe and Chans flustered state when the flower boy was in awe about all the changes, rambling about how beautiful everything turned out.  
Oh boy, Chan totally had a crush on that guy, no matter how hard he tried to convince Minho it was otherwise.

(It wasn’t.)

With a small chuckle, Minho finished his drink, organized his clothes as he stood up, and went over to the new book delivery he still needed to take care of.

*****

‘What a punk’ was the very first thing Minho thought of the young art student that was Chan’s new part-time barista. A clumsy one on top, how he didn’t fall off of his skateboard on a regular basis was a mystery to the bookseller. There wasn’t even a lot of outstanding things about the barista that screamed punk, but for Minho, he somehow gave off the feeling of being one. Maybe it was the effortless low ponytail he wore to keep his hair under control. Maybe it was the little paper plane tattoo on his wrist that peeked out under the black hoodie. Maybe it was the colorful, self-made necklace or the dangly earring. There was just something about Hwang Hyunjin, that made Minho think that he was a little rascal beneath the soft and sweet exterior.

The customers adored Hyunjin. He was sweet and polite, got good manners, and was really charming. He was kinda flirty, but it came to him in a natural way, never crossing the boundaries of the person in front of him. The people loved him for that, and soon he had a lot of regulars, who visited his shifts.

Around Chan, Hyunjin was more playful and witty. He even laughed about Chans’ dad jokes!  
Minho could swear that the sun was shining brighter in those moments.

*****

It was on a Tuesday morning in April when they opened up the shops for the first time together. Chan had an appointment out of the city, so he gave Hyunjin the trustworthy task of opening up the cafe and taking the first shift.

_“But Chan, who will make my morning coffee now? :(“_

_“Min, don’t be such a crybaby, just ask Jinnie to make you a coffee or do it yourself! You’re a big boy, I believe in you! :D”_

Minho was staring at his phone in disbelief. Did Chan really just laugh at his problem? He knew that the bookseller wasn’t really what you would call a morning person and that even opening his shop at 10 am was a challenge every day and always loved to make fun of it. With a huff, he stored his phone in his back pocket, and finally turned the keys in the lock of the door, with a sweet jingle of the various keychains he acquired from his trips to Japan. It was weird, being the first one to arrive since Chan was always earlier here than him. He packed away his personal belongings and started to tidy up the shop, collecting books from all over the cafe which customers had read in and forgot to put back, picking out the wilted flowers from their vases and checking the mail and packages he got.

Just a little after Minho arrived, he heard the sound of a skateboard through the open door, and soon the young barista arrived at the shop. He kicked up the board and came over to enter through the door of the book shop.

“Good morning Minho! Mind if I enter ?”

“Uhm, sure? And good morning to you as well.”

Minho slightly pushed back his glasses, smiling in response to the youngers radiating eyesmile. It was a warm feeling.

“Yeah, so Channie-Hyung said I should wait for you and take the general key to open up the front so yeah here I am I guess?”

Rambling like that Hyunjin quickly went over to the cafe’s counter after putting away the skateboard in the storage room. He threw over the apron and started getting to work. Why did he seem so nervous? Minho leaned back for a second, watching the other doing the preparation work on the coffee machines. He did have a lot of working experience by now, and Minho was here to help with the shop opening so everything would be fine. Maybe it was because it was his first morning shift on his own ever.  
Yes, that seemed right. Minho shrugged, before getting back to do some paperwork.

Minho was close to finishing his last invoice when the smell of his favorite drink hit his nose - a vanilla latte. He looked up to see Hyunjin in front of his counter, a shy smile on his face and the hot beverage in his hands.

“Uhm.. So Channie-Hyung left me a note to remember your morning coffee, I-.. hope you’ll like it…?”

If Minho would’ve blinked, he would’ve missed the slightly shaking hands when Hyunjin put down the drink, before he rushed off to get the keys to finally open the front doors. _The_ Hwang Hyunjin, being nervous about a coffee? This would only happen in dreams, right?

“Thanks, Hyunjin!” Minho answered, not sure if the younger actually heard it over his nervousness.

*****

Chan was right when he said, combining their shops would benefit both of their businesses greatly. In June Minho was able to afford a part-time worker to support him as well. Seungmin was a regular of his shop, a literature student who spends most of his free days in Minho's‘ shop, often discussing with him about the new finds both made.  
With Seungmins help Minho finally got some mornings back for himself, to sleep in and to relax, but he was also able to take some noons off, whichever fitted better with Seungmins lectures.

Today was a day where he took the afternoon off to spend a quiet summer evening around Han river. He grabbed his bag, the new book he chose to read, and the iced coffee in the thermos cup Chan had prepared for him. Waving goodbye to Seungmin, he stepped out of the shop in the warm summer sun, ready to enjoy his free time.

He quickly found a spot under a tree, having a wonderful view of the river, feeling the busy bustle of his surroundings. There was a playground to his left, more free space to sit down on the grass on his right and beyond him. There were students busy with studying or just relaxing, families, kids who were playing games, people waling their dogs - all kinds of people, and Minho liked that a lot. It somehow always gave him a sense of certainty to see the people just doing their thing, living their lives. In Minho’s eyes, life was worth living solely for those little things, like reading a book in the afternoon sun. It’s the small things that matter, after all. May it be reading a good book, watching your favorite movie, meeting a friend, or even just getting your favorite drink.

When the sun started to settle, Minho’s eyes strayed from the pages of his book over to the river, watching how the sun would set for the day. The families have started to leave the area and now there were a lot more young people around. He even spotted some skaters, and without noticing, he began to look for a certain blonde barista.

Realizing, that his coffee cup was empty, Minho decided to pick up a new drink from the nearby convenience store. He made his way over to the shop, not really paying much attention to anything, deeply in thought of the passage he just read and if he would find a nice caption to post the photos he took of the sunset on his Instagram page.

“Oh, hi Minho! Fancy seeing you here.”

Startled, Minho looked around just to find Hyunjin sitting on a bench next to the Seven-Eleven shop he was approaching. The younger seemed like he just got a snack for himself.

“Wanna join me?”

  
That was unfair, at least in Minho books. The boy didn’t need to look that cute, smiling widely and showing off his ramyeon bowl.

“Just gimme a second, gonna grab something to eat as well” - Why not accept the offer? They didn’t talk a lot at work, so Minho thought that was the ideal situation to get to know the young barista better.

“Sure, just be quick else my food will be cold.”

Hyunjin pouted. Minho just giggled, entering the store on the search for some food.

*****

Talking to Hyunjin was easy. It made Minho feel at ease. The younger was like the soft spring breeze, like the first warm rays of sunshine. He now realized why Chan was so fond of Hyunjin. They talked about this and that, work and the fun memories with some customers, experiences with university and being a student. They even found out that both love dancing and have been on dancing teams during high school!

Without realizing it, the moon rose and the night sky was painted with the prettiest stars. Minho always loved stargazing, and today was one of those perfect nights with a clear view. A calm atmosphere had settled between the young men, looking up counting stars, occasionally taking a sip from their drinks. It was getting a little colder, and Minho was involuntarily shivering a little. In June the nights could still get a little chilly, and Minho really didn’t intend to stay out that long. But he also kinda didn’t want this evening to end. He felt comfortable.

Noticing Minho’s discomfort, Hyunjin took off his hoodie to offer it to the older, who looked at him with wide eyes full of surprise.

“What?”

“You’re cold, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, but what about you? You don’t have any extra jacket or something.”

“Ah no, I do, I have this flannel.”

Hyunjin stood up, and Minho just now realized that the other indeed had a flannel wrapped around his waist.

“It’s okay, Minho, just take it for now. We really don’t wanna get sick, don’t we?”

A soft smile was on Hyunjin’s face when Minho put on the piece of clothing, obviously being more comfortable in an instant.  
The little shy smile on Minho’s face was definitely something he wanted to see more often. It was the same little smile he fell in love with the day he gave Minho his morning coffee.

*****

  
It was already past midnight when they arrived at the bus stop. Since Hyunjin lived close by the place they met, he could quickly skate home, but Minho needed to take a short bus ride to his apartment.

At the bus stop, Minho was fidgeting around, the corners of his mouth dropping a little. He knew he needed to give back the hoodie now, but it was _so warm_!

As if Hyunjin was a mind reader, he realized what was going on in the mind of the other, chuckling lighthearted.

“Oh, no worries, just keep the Hoodie until you’re home safely, I’m not cold.” Hyunjin smiled. His eyes were warm, glittering with a little mischief as he realized his hoodie was in fact a little big on Minho, making him look comfy and giving him little sweater paws. “Just bring it to work sometime, it’ll be alright!”

Minho looked at the younger, who didn’t seem as shy as before and was kinda at loss for words. No one ever offered him warm clothing and even insisted he should wear it until he was in a warm place again. “Hmm.” he snuggled up further in the comfy hoodie, kinda looking above his glasses to look up to the skater boy, who was ready to take off.

“Thanks Hyunjinnie, take care on your way home.”

“Will do, hyung~”

Ah, there was it again, the most charming eyesmile Minho had ever seen. “Sleep well!”

“Good night, see you tomorrow.”

With that, the barista kicked off and left Minho at the bus station, the lights of his bus home already being seen in the distance.

The hoodie smelled like old books and coffee, with a slight hint of vanilla. Just like home.

*****

Of course, Minho ran late the next morning. Getting to bed at 3 am, when you need to open up your store at 10 really is not recommendable. And of course, he forgot Hyunjins hoodie, he really hoped the younger wouldn’t be mad at him for returning the piece of clothing a day later.

In situations like these, Hyunjin really wished that he was able to rake photos with his eyes. The way Minho stumbled into the front door of the shop, clearly too late for his own liking (it was only 10:15 am), the bed hair still apparent and wearing a cozy sweater paired with the cute reading glasses he wore when he didn’t want to use contacts, was way too cute.

The bookseller only mumbled a quick “ ‘morning” in Hyunjins' direction, already too focused on his to-do list of the day. When he arrived at his counter, a familiar cup of hot coffee was already placed there, waiting for him, with a little sticky note attached to it.

_‘Thought you might need this after yesterday night :D ♥_

  
_\-- H.’_

Maybe, Minho thought to himself after looking over to Hyunjin, who was smiling brightly at him, _maybe_ that little punk wasn’t too bad at all.


End file.
